Bill Kushner has been a 1999 and a 2006 Fellow of the New York Foundation For the Arts. His books include Night Fishing (1980), Head (1986), Love Uncut
(1990), He Dreams of Waters (2000), That April (2000) and most recently, In the Hairy Arms of Whitman.
Excerpt from In Sunsetland With You:
Al Short for Alley Where I
Found You & You Found Me
I believe in beauty. I'm talking about
the beauty of the earth. You come out
of nowhere, wearing the perfect chocolate
for a hat. I just love people, good to eat,
& I keep eating more. I'm a man of
breathe speak feel. We learn, they said,
as we go, so I keep on going, of longing
& desire, & all too soon, gone. Why all
This biography? Because, in a dream, I
went somewhere & no one was there, &
the streets were empty, just butts & glitter,
bums & dreams, so I went someplace else
& you were there, tapping your toes &
waiting, & I thought how beautiful, just
waiting. You seemed to know me, my name
& we danced & you told me what my name
was, right into my ears, what my name once
Was. All that is left, I've a cat named Al,
you pet him, he purrs of desire & longing,
it's the tiger in him, it's the hunger, the
stalking, & it never leaves us, me & Al, Al
& me, we cry more more, we cry cradling
each other, late nights late, me & Al, Al
& me. Al, he scares me sometimes, it's
Al's eyes, its those cat eyes, ferocious &
terrible, they burn a terrible deep, "oh please
don't eat me, Al" I find myself whispering,
late late at night, as we huddle close in our
terrible dreams, cradling each other in a
tangle of claws, teardrops & desire, as we
toss & weep, sleep our little sleep.
